15/06/2026
Accidental belief-coding session incoming👇🏻
Yesterday I was out on a training ride for the London to Brighton when I realised we’d ridden straight past the road I grew up on! So on the way back it felt rude not to swing past my old house.
Naturally loads of memories came flooding back, most of them lovely. The stream where we caught tadpoles. The roads I used to drive down with my mum while insisting I was in charge of the cassette player (yes, cassette 😂). Even the day there was a plague of flying ants so bad I left the house using an umbrella as a shield. They still terrify me to this day!
Then I saw the trees I used to climb, and remembered one particular afternoon when I was stuck up one of them while two mean boys from school stood underneath throwing stones at me.
There was no quick text home back then. Just me, scared, embarrassed and trying to work out what to do. I remember deciding it felt safer to stay up there than climb down and face whatever might happen next.
Standing there as a 51 year old woman, the tree looked quite small. In fact, the whole place that once felt like my entire world looked teeny. Everything feels bigger as a kid, even the feeling of being scared.
It wasn’t just the memory that stayed in the back of my mind all these years. It was the belief I’d created in that moment that it was safer to stay where I was than risk what might happen if I moved.
I’ve done belief coding sessions in the past where I’ve spoken to that little girl and told her she doesn’t have to stay up there. She doesn’t need to stay hidden or small. She can climb down because she doesn’t need to wait until she feels completely brave or has everything figured out first.
I wonder how many of us are still carrying beliefs like that?
Not just in life, but in running too.
Maybe you’re waiting to enter the race or join the group. Maybe you’re waiting to ask for help or change the plan that simply isn’t working anymore.
Sometimes the younger version of us was just trying to feel safe.
But she doesn’t always need to make the decisions now!